Study shows that Narconon Drug Education Works

A peer-reviewed study published in the Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy Journal shows that the Narconon Drug Education program is effective in reducing drug use amongst youth.

The study said:

Results
At six month follow-up, youths who received the Narconon drug education curriculum showed reduced drug use compared with controls across all drug categories tested. The strongest effects were seen in all tobacco products and cigarette frequency followed by marijuana. There were also significant reductions measured for alcohol and amphetamines. The program also produced changes in knowledge, attitudes and perception of risk.
Conclusion
The eight-module Narconon curriculum has thorough grounding in substance abuse etiology and prevention theory. Incorporating several historically successful prevention strategies this curriculum reduced drug use among youths.

You can read the entire published study here: The NARCONON™ drug education curriculum for high school students: A non-randomized, controlled prevention trial

History of Psychiatry: 1920s Los Angeles

Over the weekend I saw a movie that came out last year called "Changeling". It is based on the true story of a woman in 1920s Los Angeles whose child went missing. The LAPD at that time was a corrupt organization that didn't take kindly to anyone crossing them, so when the woman's "son" was brought back and she pointed out the fact that this boy was not her son, they did what any self-respecting fascist would do: they had her committed.

The psychiatrists at the local psych hospital were quite happy to do as they were told so she was incarcerated and given "treatment" which to anyone other than a psych was obviously torture used in an attempt to shut her up.

While in the hospital she discovered many other women who were also there because they crossed the LAPD.

In the end, she was released and she campaigned until all the other women were also released and the law was changed so such easy commitment could not happen in the future.

But the sad truth of this movie is that it really happened and the psychs were happily complicit in this obvious violation of human rights as they have been throughout their history: Communist Russia where they were used to shut up dissidents; Nazi Germany where they were in charge of sending people to the death camp; 50s America where they ran the mind control experiments for the CIA, and on and on.

I highly recommend this movie as part of your education in the history of a dangerous subject which seems never to have had the good of mankind in mind.

There is Hope for me (Satire)

It seems the FDA has finally approved a new type of drug called depressants. These are drugs aimed at helping those of us who are too cheerful.


FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

It had to happen.

Bad Memories

Here is a comment thread that I thought might be of interest.

Jim Gatos said...
Grahame, would you please look at this link? I saw this at the BBC RSS feeds.

Is this supposed to be "auditing by prescription"?

Heart pill to banish bad memories

I think it's bad news...

Grahame said...
Hey Jim,

I agree - very bad news.

It looks to me, from what the article says, that the conclusions the researchers have come to are erroneous.

Surely a more logical conclusion is that the drugs merely made the subjects less aware of their environment. The fact that they reacted less to present-time "startling" stimuli shows this. It proves nothing about their memories.

The experiments with animals also show this. As the article says, "Experiments on animals has shown beta blockers can interfere with how the brain makes sense of frightening events." The creatures were confused. The drugs disoriented them. It had nothing to do with erasing memories.

Seems to me that someone is trying to get a nice big grant from a drug company.

Grahame said...
Hey Jim,

One other thing.

Scientology Auditing does not erase memories as the article implies that the drugs do.

Auditing erases the trauma associated with the memories. The memories themselves are still there, it's the pain and suffering associated with them that is gone.

If you had an accident and the memory was completely removed then you could easily make the same mistakes again and repeat the accident. If you have the trauma removed then you can remember exactly what happened and thereby learn from your mistakes.

I think that's a much better solution.

A Human Rights/Educational Program worth supporting

The Way to Happiness is a common sense moral code that is not part of the Scientology religion (because it is non-religious), but is followed by most Scientologists.

One of the precepts is Do not harm a Person of Good Will. Taking it one step further I think we should support people of good will.

With that in mind, here is a cause worth supporting: Pennies for Peace